Posted on September 4, 2007
Chapel Hill, N.C. — Three Colonial Athletic Association football teams played first time starting quarterbacks this weekend and Hofstra will open their season Saturday in the same situation.
Of the four newcomers, only James Madison’s junior Rodney Landers had the daunting task of opening at North Carolina’s Kenan Stadium in front of 58,500 fans, ecstatic over the arrival of former national champion head coach, Butch Davis.
After the Dukes surrendered their first touchdown a minute and 23 seconds into the game, Landers took the field as a starter with a less-than-ceremonial first snap, coughing up the ball for the first of JMU’s three turnovers in a 37-14 loss.
“No, I don’t think it was hard to shake that [fumble],” Landers said. “You just can’t dig a hole like that early. Before you know it you’re down 14-0 and you’ve only ran one offensive play.”
On the Dukes second offensive series, Landers was able to complete his first pass-attempt, but senior tailback Eugene Holloman was tackled for no gain, bringing up a fourth-and-10.
Two of Landers’ next three completed passes were negated by illegal procedure penalties, both would have gone for seven-yard gains, but ended in five-yard losses. Redshirt freshman Theo Sherman was officially tagged with two of the four similar first-half fouls, in which the Dukes were charged with having only six men on the line. The rule states a tackle’s helmet has to be level with his guard’s hip, and Sherman’s youthful mistakes hampered Landers’ ability to get in a flow and move the chains.
“We shot ourselves in the foot. We had some penalties in the beginning of the game and we had some incomplete passes,” Landers said. “You just can’t win when you put yourselves in third-and-long situations.”
The offensive struggles continued into the second quarter. Already down 21-0, Landers was intercepted on the first play of the quarter, when he overthrew a receiver. UNC senior cornerback Kendrick Williams returned the pick 45 yards to the JMU 12-yard line, setting up another score for the Tar Heels on senior Connor Barth’s 27-yard field goal.
Madison’s offense settled down on the next possession as Landers engineered a 10-play, 73-yard scoring drive in 5:06. Landers eluded the rush of redshirt freshman Darrius Massenburg, getting the defensive end to jump on a pump-fake before finding senior wide-out L.C. Baker in the back of the end zone.
“He [Landers] did okay, I thought we struggled to block him, we got some new guys up front offensively, he was under fire a lot,” JMU coach Mickey Matthews said. “It’s kind of tough to come down and open up in front of [about] 60,000, [in a] first game.”
Landers got the Dukes on the board again late in the fourth quarter when he scrambled for an eight-yard rushing touchdown with 41 seconds remaining in the game. He accounted for 64 percent of the total offense, rushing for 71 yards and passing for 100 yards. Despite throwing two interceptions Landers completed 14 of his 22 attempts.
With a porous offensive line, Madison’s new quarterback was hurried all night making it hard to assess his performance. The defense didn’t provide much help either, as JMU’s average starting field position was at its own 20-yard line. Carolina’s defensive tackle and prospective first round draft pick, Kentwan Balmer had high praise for the opponent he spent all night chasing down.
“An athlete of this caliber, you’re not going to shut down,” defensive tackle Kentwan Balmer said. “I think we had a good scheme for him, but of course they’re going to make plays.”
The Dukes will have their hands full again next Saturday when they open at home against New Hampshire. Landers will square off against last year’s Walter Payton Award winner in the Wildcat’s senior quarterback Ricky Santos and look to put UNC behind him and steer JMU to its first victory of 2007.
“I think we’re still on schedule,” Landers said. “If you go into any game and you say that’s the game that is going to determine the season, I don’t think you can say that. We just need to rebound and come back next week and that’s the CAA opener and that’s our main focus right now to just take it one game at a time.”
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